Magic

Taos magic

In the last several days I've spent time in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Some writing assignments for astrology.com have kept me busy writing-wise, I gave a Receive intro workshop in Albuquerque, plus I've spent quite a bit of time in the car, so it's taken me a while to get back to my blog.

When Carol and I decided to spend time in Oklahoma City, we were lucky enough to happen upon an art fair and spent a lovely afternoon strolling around the gardens where the fair was held.

Oklahoma City was a surprise. It's an unusually beautiful city with an interesting history. In one afternoon between noon and sundown on April 22, 1889,10,000 land claims were made and the prairie lands of the Oklahoma Territory became a city overnight. On December 24, 1928 an oil well struck a gusher. It turned out the city was built on an oil field. Later in 1964, the well-known architect I.M. Pei was hired to redesign the city.

Here are a couple of photos from the fair.

Art fair in Oklahoma City

New Mexico artist in Oklahoma City who recommended a hotel in Taos, New Mexico called El Pueblo, where Carol and I stayed a day later.

This is the Texas I saw for a long time traveling on Interstate Route 40

Here are some photos from New Mexico

New Mexico landscape


Here are some of the colors of Santa Fe





The old Route 66 goes right through Santa Fe


Santa Fe shop

also Santa Fe

Taos, New Mexico. Now here is a town I fell in love with. It is a town of artists and everywhere you turn from landscape to restaurant to people is a full palette of colors, sights and sounds. Here are some of them.

Virgo moon in Taos



View from Taos, New Mexico



outside cafe in Taos



the Virgo moon again



Taos dog



I'm going to have to devote an entire post just to the incredible food I've eaten during this journey.



Taos bikers



this is from the lobby of the El Pueblo hotel


the window of a shop Taos Blue

Storm Chaser

"Are you a storm chaser?"
I looked over to see a guy in a pickup watching me take photographs as I waited for a tornado to arrive. I laughed. That's really funny. I'm actually nervous about getting to the tornado shelter in time but can't resist taking some photos first of this town Checotah, a wide spot in the road about two hours east of Oklahoma City. It turns out this is where Carrie Underwood, a country singer who won one of the American Idol shows was born and raised.

This leg of my journey from Atlanta to Oklahoma began when I picked up my friend Carol Monday morning from her friends' home in Roswell Georgia where she had been visiting. Carol had heard about Hot Springs, Arkansas with it's healing baths, so we decided to make Bill Clinton's boyhood home our first stop, a drive that took ten hours through Georgia, Tennessee and finally into Arkansas.

I have a renewed appreciation of Bill Clinton's achievements after seeing this small impoverished town.

Since Hot Springs didn't turn out to be a place we wanted to stay, the next morning we got back in the car to drive through Arkansas and into Oklahoma. Here are some photos of the countryside in Arkansas.

Arkansas cows


In this picture you can see the beautiful Ouachita mountains

Arkansas landscape

Here are some photos of a charming coffee shop in Fort Smith Arkansas where we had lunch. A salad was $4.50 for mostly lettuce. For an additional 45 cents we could also have home-baked roasted chicken on top of the salad. That wasn't a hard choice to make!

We had planned to drive all the way into Oklahoma City, but when the skies looked ominous and the weather report said that the worst storm in three years was coming through with tornadoes, we waited it out in a tornado shelter for a couple of hours with two other travelers from the road, Anna and Julie. Julie is visiting from South Korea. No tornadoes came through our area -- only 60 mile an hour winds with plenty of lightening and rain.

Julie

After a couple of hours, we got back on the road. Here are a couple of photos from our stay in Checotah.

A coal train passing through

This is Carol, my storm-chaser buddy

and this is me

Southern Hospitality

Everywhere I go with Toni and Jerry, my Atlanta friends, people know them. Toni is the ultimate 11th house (for those of you who know astrology) networker. I met her in 2001 at UAC, an international astrology conference, that was held in Orlando, Florida. We were checking into the hotel at the same time and by the time we got to the front of the line we were friends. That's pretty much the way it is for everyone who meets Toni.

Toni has a great spirit. She's like an energizer bunny: up early every morning and late to bed. "I'll sleep when I'm dead," she says.

When I arrived, my hosts took me out to a lovely restaurant where Toni, Jerry and I caught up while people interrupted our conversation here and there to shake hands, hug and chat. The following evening, a dinner party was held for people to meet me. One of the women, Bobbie, gave me a spontaneous amazing psychic reading. Sandra and Al are in the process of arranging to establish centers to help abused women and children. Al is a builder and Sandra runs a group for abused women. Helen is an accomplished dentist and endontist who runs her own practice. Each one of these people were delightful. Did I mention: Jerry is a steel executive and Toni is an astrologer. Truly an interesting, eclectic mix.

Today I repacked my car to make room for my friend Carol who is going to join me on the road. Carol is from the Baltimore area. When she heard I was going to drive across country she loved the idea. "Why don't you fly into a city I'm traveling through and travel with me for awhile?" So she flew into Atlanta last Friday to stay with friends who live, it turns out, only 1.7 miles from Toni and Jerry's home. I'm picking up Carol tomorrow morning and we will adventure together. We are not sure yet what our first stop will be.

Here are some photos of these wonderful people. And of course Chanel, Toni and Jerry's dog.

Toni and Chanel



Jerry and Bobbie



Al and Sandra

Helen




Chanel aka Princess Chanel Spice

Openess

If you want to paint your house in Charleston, you have to submit a board to the city with three colors of paint on it for the color to be approved. The buildings here are either original or are rebuilt to look exactly the same, which brings a unique beauty to this city that doesn't feel like a city at all.

The pace of life here is slow and friendly. If you ask someone at the grocery store where something is, they lead you to it. Stop to ask directions at a corner store and you end up in a conversation with the person next to you in line.

Bob Rhame, the person in line, turns out to be a writer. His daughter lives in Chicago and is a medium who has written a book titled How to be a Happy Medium. Her name is Morian Rhame. It turns out it runs in the family. Bob comes from a family line of mediums. Before I am out of the store he's given me his daughters home phone number and tells me to call her! His book, I think the one he is working on, is titled Odd Obstreperous Bob. He says it's fiction.

Later, when I ordered a cup of soup from a small cafe, the elderly man behind the counter asks me, "Is that enough? Would you like some bread?" I said, "No," but he brought me a slice anyway for which I ended up feeling grateful. It was the right choice.

I am being tended to and looked after by both strangers and friends on this trip. It's wonderful to be reminded of the goodness and generosity in this world.

More photos from South Carolina

Such a simple life lesson

(you can click on photos, like this one to read what's on the door, to make them larger)

Charleston

Charleston dog

Sea and sand and sky

Folly Beach pier

David

High Tide

I've known David for 19 years but haven't seen him for maybe 10 years. Our paths crossed here and there in the Philadelphia area for while. And then he actually became part of my extended family when my father married his sister. A bit of strange karma since my father met David's sister independent of me knowing David. Odd, isn't it? My father and David's sister are no longer married.

So David and I are picking up on a friendship that began long ago and, to tell you the truth, it seems like no time has past. But that's the way it is with some people. It's like you just pick up where you left off as though there was simply a slight pause in the conversation.

David is smart, charismatic and highly gifted. He led a Course in Miracles group in the Philadelphia area back in the 90s and continues to counsel people and lead men's and women's groups. He's also involved in the New Warrior Training Adventure for men, which is part of the Mankind Project. He's made his home in South Carolina over these last years - and what a beautiful home it is with plants, Buddhas, and drums. Everywhere I turn, there is something beautiful to gaze upon. He says there is a story to each object. I'm looking forward to hearing them.

David's cat, Ben, lives here also and is one of those cats that is a cat - but really isn't.

I am happy to be here. The tide is high, the stars are out, and the sound of the water is relaxing.

Photos from South Carolina

This is the view from the back porch


This, too.


This is Ben


Back to the view

Out on a Twig

The fierce weather here on the east coast kept me in Washington DC at Mary's place an extra day. Not hard to take at all. The impossibly tall, narrow trees that surround this sun-lit apartment are filled with squirrel nests made from, it looks like, loosely put together leaves. They build them way out at the end of these small twigs. Amazingly they survived the storm and wind gusts. They are little engineering marvels.

Back in the 1930s when it looked like the local grey squirrels were going to vanish due to a disease that was killing many of them, the zoo released 8 pairs of black squirrels into the city. Although smaller and a bit delicate looking, it turned out they were extremely territorial and a squirrel war commenced. (It turned out there were plenty of grey squirrels left.)

The black and grey squirrels have their own city blocks. Where I am visiting is a black squirrel block and those are the ones whose nests are still perched on the end of the twigs.

The storm has passed and I am heading south.

Photos from DC visit

Beautiful DC




Beautiful cat named Sky


Beautiful easter eggs in glass bowl




Beautiful Mary




Beautiful cherry blossoms




the cat again